Unitrans and RCL Foods are celebrating their more than 20-year relationship.

RCL Foods is a leading food producer in South Africa and holds a varied portfolio of prominent and much-loved food brands like Rainbow chicken, Nola mayonnaise and Yum Yum peanut butter. The company’s history spans over 120 years and has seen the acquisition of several large food producers in South Africa since inception.

Unitrans is a diversified supply chain company that has served the needs of select sub-Saharan African markets for over 50 years. Their highly successful business model and decades of experience incorporate the design, implementation and ongoing provision of supply chain solutions for their customers.

This long-standing relationship between RCL and Unitrans has been further extended with the renewal of the distribution services rendered to the Agric and Feed divisions for a further five years.

Unitrans performs a variety of farm services for the Agric division, including the movement of day old chicks from hatcheries to farms and the movement of broilers from farms to processing plants. Unitrans also provides material-handling equipment to support all these activities as well as passenger transport services for the RCL staff. 

Services performed for the RCL Animal Feed division include the movement of bulk feed products from mills to end customers in Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, Worcester, Rustenburg and Berlin.

‘We do see ourselves as an extension of the RCL business and believe our shared philosophy of consistently achieving high levels of service delivery will keep us aligned into the future,’ says Ray Singh, Executive: Business Development at Unitrans.

The poultry market has been a tough trading environment for some time now, with cheap chicken imports being dumped in South Africa by European Union countries as well as the United States and Brazil. The outbreak of Avian Influenza in the Western Cape in the second half of 2017 exacerbated this further and resulted in significant job losses. In these challenging times Unitrans, capitalising on their intimate long-term experience and understanding of the successful operation of RCL distribution, has worked closely with RCL to restructure and optimise operations, ensuring that cost effectiveness and the highest levels of bio-security are maintained. 

‘We have had a relationship with Unitrans that spans 20 years, and we place tremendous value on such partnerships in our business, as the value of many years’ experience brings a great understanding of the complexity of live animal transport. The collective intellectual capital and operational knowledge within the partnership with Unitrans is irreplaceable and allows us to focus on efficiencies within this highly specialised logistic space,’ says Wes Schwimmbacher, Agricultural Director RCL FOODS Consumer Division.

‘The long-standing relationship with Unitrans continues to grow in strength as a result of the mature relationships, the flexible approach from Unitrans to adapt to our changing environment, challenges and opportunities. We regard Unitrans as an extension of our business and the Unitrans drivers therefore become the frontline of our customer interactions,’ says Wouter de Wet, Director – Animal Feed Business Unit.

As a part of the renewal process, the committed teams from both Unitrans and the RCL divisions have identified a list of key strategic and continuous improvement projects to drive and implement into the future. This realises great value for all stakeholders and will ensure sustainability in their operations.